1. Technical Field
The technical field relates generally to brand management and, more particularly, to managing brand loyalty using a distributed computer system.
2. Background Discussion
Conventional brand marketing and loyalty programs focus on building goodwill associated with a brand. There are many well-known examples of such programs. For instance, some petroleum companies offer fleet programs through which members receive a discount on fuel purchased from companies honoring the fleet card. Many food service companies offer programs that provide free or reduced-price meals to customers who purchase several full-price meals. Airline companies award frequent-flyer miles to travelers and these frequent-flyer miles may be exchanged for reduced-price or free flights, subject to blackout periods.
Conventional brand marketing and loyalty systems are architected with these examples in mind. Thus these systems employ a structure built around the brand-owner and, in some cases, companies affiliated with the brand owner.